Dancer and choreographer Robert Sher-Machherndl will bring his acclaimed Boulder dance company to town this week to perform a short piece with a long history.

Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet arrives in Denver Wednesday, June 11 to perform two nights of the 15-minute work “Leopoldstadt 22” at the Mizel Museum, Denver’s repository for Jewish art and culture.

Sher-Machherndl describes the piece as “a powerful commentary on human suffering as it relates to the Holocaust.” It will be followed by a panel discussion on topics such as history’s impact on artistic expression and reclaiming lost places.

The piece is named for the Jewish quarter of Vienna, Austria, where Sher-Machherndl was born. Mizel Museum Director of Education Jan Nadav will modreate the discussion with Sher-Maccherndl and others.

The grants — 928 in all totalling $77.17 million nationally — will go toward everything from arts education and dance programs to supporting literature, opera and visual arts. Specifically, they covered the NEA’s grant categories of Art Works, Arts in Media and Partnerships.

“The arts should be a part of everyday life,” NEA chairman Rocco Landesman said in a press release. “Whether it’s seeing a performance, visiting a gallery, participating in an art class, or simply taking a walk around a neighborhood enhanced by public art, these grants are ensuring that across the nation, the public is able to experience how art works.”

Click below for a full list of Colorado organizations and the amounts they were awarded.

Long before Henry Lowenstein became known as Denver’s most prominent theater producer, he was a child of the kindertransport. Now the theater legend has has gifted his personal documents from World War II to the Mizel Museum, 400 S. Kearney St..

These documents detail his family’s struggle to survive the Holocaust.

“I think the Mizel Museum is the right place for my collection of papers relating to my family and my parents’ miraculous survival in Berlin during WWII,” he said. “Museums carry a special responsibility to continue to explain and tell about one of the darkest chapters in human history.”